


Like A Good Book (I Can't Put You Down)

by thepurpleswitch (andchimeras)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Backstory, F/M, Fractured Fairy Tale, Gen, Retcon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-14
Updated: 2006-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-09 17:01:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/89669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andchimeras/pseuds/thepurpleswitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Once upon a time there was a queen, and her king, and their two princes. They lived in a little castle in a little kingdom not too far from here, and they lived happily ever after. (But you know that's a lie.)" Kripked all to hell and back by "In The Beginning."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like A Good Book (I Can't Put You Down)

**Author's Note:**

> Would not have happened if estrellada hadn't believed my story about how The Demon became involved with John and Mary and their reproductive efforts, and contributed an actual reason why Mary would seek out juju to get pregnant. I seriously considered calling this "A Sorta Fractured Fairytale." Because I have NO SOUL.

_Once upon a time, there was a queen, and more than anything in the world she wanted a baby._

"I want--" she said, wringing her hands in the kitchen, white nightgown down to the dark floor. "I want a baby, John. Before you go away again."

He looked over to her from the hallway. A car went past on the street outside and its headlights ran through the window, over her face and neck, her long gold hair.

"Mary," he started.

"No," she said. "Please. I'm afraid you won't come home, I'm--please, John." She held her hands out and he saw them holding a baby, wrapped tightly in a white blanket. She put her hands together and he hated to see her beg. "Please, John. Say yes."

He looked down at his duffel bag, at the shiny brass buttons on his uniform.

"Say yes," she said, once more.

He took his hat off and met her eyes. He nodded.

She smiled as if she had worked and witnessed a miracle.

 

&amp;

 

_The queen went to a wise woman and asked for a surety._

"Ai, Mary," Sister Genevieve said in the church kitchen. "It's dangerous."

"I just need to be sure," she said. "I just need to know that I'll be pregnant before he goes."

Sister sipped her tea and gave the queen a shrewd look. "That all you want?"

She knew you could make certain all kinds of things--sex, disposition, eye colour--"Yes," she said. She made a fist with her left hand and placed it carefully on the tabletop. Her plain gold wedding ring was dull under the fluorescent kitchen lights.

Sister stirred her tea.

The queen sighed and smiled ruefully. "I do want him to be strong," she said. "For John."

Sister nodded and put down her tea spoon. "Pass me the sugar, Mary. I'll see what I can do."

 

&amp;

 

_The surety was true and binding--it struck only a few weeks before the king went off to war again. When the king returned, his queen and prince were healthy and hale. The king and queen's country entered a time of peace and prosperity, but the excitement of battle still held the king in thrall._

"You're going away this weekend? This weekend? Again?" she said on a Friday morning, standing between his bags and the door, Dean on her hip.

"It's deer season," he said. "I haven't gone away in six months."

"You went on manoeuvres with that vets' group two weeks ago!"

He looked up from lacing his boots. "I was gone one night, Mary."

Dean put his thumb in his mouth. His cheeks were pinched red and his eyes were watery. "The baby is teething," she said. "The upstairs toilet is still leaking. My mother is going to be here in less than a week. And if you don't start helping George with actually running the garage, he's going to start paying you like a mechanic again."

He looked at her, in her jeans and cotton shirt, rough sweater to keep her warm in their drafty house. Her long gold hair braided down her back. Her hands, full of their son. His son, staring solemnly back at him.

"All right," he said. She didn't smile. Her forehead puckered. "After this trip, Mary, I promise--"

She looked up at the ceiling and he could see her starting to cry. "Mary, please."

She shook her head and went past him, went up the stairs, her hand on Dean's hot cheek.

 

&amp;

 

_The queen, desperation in her heart, went once more to the wise woman._

Sister Genevieve's hands shook as she poured Mary's tea. "Would you like a biscuit?" she said to Dean, smiling.

"Yes, ma'am," he said.

"All right," the queen said.

Sister carefully took an arrowroot biscuit out of the waxpaper sleeve and handed it to Dean. "Thank you," he said.

"Good boy, Dean," the queen said. She ran her hand over his head and gave him his colouring book and box of crayons.

When he was drawing quietly, the queen said, "After he was born, the doctors told me I shouldn't have another baby. They said I shouldn't have had Dean at all."

Sister nodded. "I remember," she said.

"I never told John. And--"

Sister closed her eyes and shook her head. "Mary, no."

Dean threw a crayon onto the table. It nearly landed in the queen's tea cup. She tossed it back and told him to be careful.

"Please," she said to Sister. "I just need him to stay home. I need him with me, with us. I need--I need his help."

Sister pursed her mouth. "Tea and wine and an hour of chanting won't do it this time," she said.

The queen took a deep breath. "Whatever I have to do," she said.

 

&amp;

 

_The wise woman gave the queen two cakes as sureties: a light cake, smelling of vanilla and mint; and a dark cake, smelling of poppies and chocolate._

"John's waiting outside," the queen said to Sister. "I told him I had to drop these off for the bake sale." She held up a plate of square brown cookies.

Sister Genevieve smiled tightly and took the plate. "Thank you, dear." She opened the ancient church oven and pulled out a pan.

"I went to a man in Kingdom City for the ingredients," Sister said.

"You went to Missouri?" the queen asked, surprised.

Sister carefully removed the cakes from the pan and put them in a red Tupperware container. "There aren't many places you can get what I needed for this recipe, Mary. I asked everyone I know for their help, and I was directed to this man." He had been strange, living in a dark house nearly an hour away from town. Herbs, roots, berries, barks, and dried animal organs hung from the ceiling inside. He had hardly met her eyes, a smug smile on his pointed face.

The queen took the container. Outside, a horn blared. "I have to go," she said, and turned away.

"Eat only one at a time, Mary," Sister said. "Eat one, and if you don't conceive, eat the other."

"Yes, Sister, thank you!" the queen called from the doorway.

 

&amp;

 

_The queen was doubtful of these instructions. If only one cake might not work, why not take both to begin with? The wise woman had always been over-cautious and didn't really think the queen ought to be doing this in the first place._

The queen was worried, and heartsick, and foolish.

The queen ate both cakes.

The pregnancy was difficult and it seemed to her that it went on for years. Heartburn, shingles, nausea, cramping in her thighs and spasms in her back. He stayed home, though. All of those months, he didn't go away. He read to Dean and fixed the broken attic window and the front stairs and made strong herbal tea for her according to Sister Genevieve's instructions.

The labour was long. Bloody and cruel and hard. He held her hand and told her she was beautiful, strong. Told her she was brave. Told her she was a queen among women.

She smiled at him. She felt sure that she would die before she saw the baby she had begged for.

In the end, Sam came. She held him hot and floppy on her chest and cried in their lowlit living room, Sister's hands clamped around her ankles.

 

&amp;

 

_Once upon a time there was a queen, and her king, and their two princes. They lived in a little castle in a little kingdom not too far from here._

Dean helped his father hang the mobile and set out the stuffed animals beside the rocking chair.

He held on to the side of the crib and stared at Sam through the bars for a long time.

"Is he real now, Dad?" he asked the king.

"Yes, Dean," said the king. "He's real."

The queen put her arms around the king and held him tightly.

And they lived happily ever after.

 

&amp;

 

_The only authentic ending is the one provided here:  
John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die._

-Margaret Atwood, "Happy Endings"


End file.
